1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling structure for cooling a vehicle electronic unit, and a module structure of vehicle cockpit components.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, an electronic member having a high thermal resistance is used for a heat-generation electronic unit such as an integrated circuit (IC) chip mounted in a vehicle. Alternatively, a heat sink or a cooling fan is provided to only cool the heat-generation electronic unit. The electronic unit maybe cooled by air blown from a vehicle air conditioner. However, if the air from the vehicle air conditioner is simply blown to the electronic unit for cooling the electronic unit, a dew point of the electronic unit is reduced, and moisture is condensed on the electronic unit. Therefore, the electronic unit may fail, and may be short-circuited, for example. Further, in a case where the vehicle air conditioner is operated in an outside-air introduction mode in the winter, low-temperature outside air is blown to the electronic unit, and thereby readily generating condensed water on the electronic unit.
On the other hand, in a module structure disclosed in JP-A-2001-163031, cockpit components such as a display unit, a meter unit, a dashboard, a steering support member, an air bag unit, an air conditioning unit, an air-conditioning duct and their peripheral members are beforehand assembled together to be modularized in a sub-assembly line. Then, the modularized body of the cockpit components is assembled to a vehicle, thereby reducing assembly time in a vehicle assembly line. Generally, the display unit, the meter unit and the dashboard are used for forming the design in a passenger compartment of the vehicle. Further, in many cases, the design of such cockpit components is changed for every vehicle type, and for every vehicle grade such as standard specification and deluxe specification even in the same vehicle type. On the other hand, the air bag unit and the air conditioning unit are not used for forming the design in the passenger compartment. Therefore, the same structure of the air bag unit or the air conditioning unit may be used in common for many vehicle types and for many vehicle grades. However, the air bag unit is designed in accordance with a condition such as a vertical dimension and a lateral dimension of a vehicle seat, but the structure of the air conditioning unit is not changed by this condition. Accordingly, in many cases, the structure of the air bag unit is changed for every vehicle type and the like, while the same structure of the air conditioning unit can be used in common for many vehicle types, and for many vehicle grades. In some cases, the same design of the air conditioning unit can be commonly used for different vehicle makers. Thus, if the cockpit components are simply modularized, that is, if cockpit components necessary to change its design and cockpit components unnecessary to change its design are modularized as a single module structure, the module structure is required to be changed for every vehicle grade or every vehicle type.